Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal): What to Expect

Slowly but steadily, Ubuntu is catching up with its competitors. The Canonical-made distro is getting better and better with every release. Ubuntu 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” managed to silence some of the Unity critics to a large extent. And though, work still needs to be done to take on the mighty warriors at Redmond, it seems that Shuttleworth’s untiring endeavors have started coming to fruition. Ubuntu 12.10 recently baptized as Quantal Quetzal is already looking promising.

With some great features lined up for this release, Canonical gets one more step closer to fixing Bug #1 on Launchpad. Ubuntu 12.10 is bound to be released on October 18, 2012.

We’ll have to wait a while longer till we see some new features springing up in the beta versions of Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal). Meanwhile, if you can’t resist knowing about the upcoming features -- both confirmed and unconfirmed -- read on as we list out whatever you can expect from Ubuntu 12.10.

No more CDs

Ubuntu 12.10 won’t fit on a CD this time, as it will be a 800MB image. So either you’ll have to burn a DVD or use a USB thumb drive. Though the change was bound to happen sometime in the future, it does annoy a few people who relied on the good old CDs for their Ubuntu installs.

Ubuntu Web Apps

The reason people love Chromebooks is that they have the whole of web integrated right into the desktop. The same feature will make its way to your Ubuntu desktop with the new Web app integration. This new addition will let you use web applications or rather your favorite websites like Reddit, Google Drive, etc.

Every time you visit a website, you’ll get a message asking whether you want to integrate this site with Ubuntu. Clicking on yes will make it show up as an application in the Dash menu along with HUD integration. This will help bring the web-heavy users to the Ubuntu desktop thus stealing the thunder from Google Chromebooks. One advantage Ubuntu will have over Chromebooks is that it will offer best of both the worlds to the users. Let’s hope the feature takes off as expected.

Better Update Manager

The Update Manager will be streamlined in this release making it much less distracting.

No Migration Assistant

Remember the migration assistant that let you transfer all your Windows documents and settings to Ubuntu? Well, you’re going to miss it. Thanks to many bug reports associated with the feature, it will be discontinued in future releases.

An Improved Nautilus

The Canonical team is busy working on an improved Nautilus as GNOME developers have pushed a new version of the file manager. Sporting a different look, Nautilus also removes some of the features power users relied on heavily. Features like Compact View, split screen, tree view and more have been removed from the file manager.

The latest of all software

Ubuntu 12.10 will feature the latest version of the Linux kernel. Furthermore, you’ll find the most recent versions of your favorite software like Firefox, Shotwell, and more waiting for you in this October release. Expect to see Firefox 16 and LibreOffice 3.6 to be there once Quetzal is launched. Both these versions will bring some new features and a lot of stability to these applications.

A New Icon Theme Maybe?

Rumor mills are abuzz with news of a completely fresh icon theme making its way to the Ubuntu desktop. If the news is true then we might get to see some great eye candy in this latest release. What’s more, it might actually distract people from the Windows 8 buzz that will be floating around all over the web. Also, there are plans for a major aesthetic makeover for this release. Let’s hope that the folks at Canonical manage to surprise us with something spectacular.

A faster Ubuntu

According to Phoronix, this release will be significantly faster and more powerful than the previous release. Benchmarks show a noticeable improvement in many areas of computing, making the whole release worth waiting for.

Written by: Abhishek, a regular TechSource contributor and a long-time FOSS advocate.